Yet, among some of the Patagonian tribes, there is a considerable approach to personal religion. It has been thought with some reason that they are totally destitute of religion. This, however, is certainly not the case, as even our limited knowledge of these people, their language and their habits show that, even though they may not possess any definite system of worship, they are still impressed with the idea of some Being infinitely greater than themselves, who knows everything that they do. Thus they believe in an omniscient Being; and such a belief as this, limited and imperfect though it may be, is yet a step in the right direction. To this unknown Being they return thanks for a supply of food after a long famine; so that we find them acknowledging that the great Being, who knows all their deeds, watches over them and is the giver of all good things. When, for example, they have procured a seal, after having been half starved for months, they assemble round a fire, and the oldest man present cuts for each person a piece of the seal, uttering over each portion a sort of prayer, and looking upward in devotion to the unseen God who had sent them meat in their need. Undisciplined as are the Patagonians, totally unaccustomed to self-denial and mad with hunger, not one of them will touch the food until this invocation has been repeated. Thus they show a devout spirit. THE AZTECS. The religion of the Mexicans breathed a savage spirit, which degraded them, in a moral point of view, far below the hordes of wandering Indians. Their deities, represented by misshapen images of serpents and other hideous animals, were the creation of the darkest passions of the human breast--of terror, hatred, cruelty and revenge. They delighted in blood, and thousands of human sacrifices were annually offered at their shrines. The places of worship, called Teocallis, were pyramids composed of terraces placed one above another, like the temple of Belus at Babylon. These were built of clay, or of alternate layers of clay and unburnt bricks, but, in some cases, faced with slabs of polished stone, on which figures of animals were sculptured in relief. One or two small chapels stood upon the summit, inclosing images of the deity. The largest known Teocalli contains four stories or terraces, and has a breadth of 480 yards at the base and a height of 55 yards. These structures served as temples, tombs and observatories. [Illustration: ANCIENT AZTEC IDOL.]